The article “Culture, Structure, and the Refugee Experience
in Somali Immigrant Family Transformation” by Elizabeth Heger Boyle and Ahmed Ali
discusses the Somali refugee experience in Minnesota. The authors did in-depth
interviews with families living in the Twin Cities Metro Area because that is
the highest concentration of Somali refuges in the United States (Boyle 51).
Interviewees were recruited at places like conferences, shopping malls, and ESL
classes and asked questions ranging from topics of family life to religion.
The researchers found that life in the United States greatly
differed from that of Somalia. Two areas that they found drastic changes were
economic opportunities and how money affects daily life and the influence of
American values, beliefs, and culture on daily life and interactions.
Some discoveries that the researchers found through
interviewing refugees were:
- · Family structure moved from a lot of members, including extended family members like Grandparents and community members, to traditional American family structure, including parents and children only
- · Families were more likely to separate and function as single families
- · Fewer arranged marriages were occurring because of new cultural values about marriage
- · Stress levels in families increased and some participants said that family life in America was not as satisfying as family life in Africa
- · A sense of loss is felt because the extended family members are no longer there to help with the household
- · Family in the United States is more private and isolated
- · In Africa, there was a fear of the family if a mistake was made or the couple was fighting but in the United States, there is a fear of the government and legal action
- · Many refugees are forced to work low paid service work because oversees degrees are not valued in the United States, refugees do not have as many networks for job searching, and discrimination against refugees
There is also a population of Somali refugees and immigrants in Mankato, Minnesota.
One resource that can help refugees living in Mankato is the YWCA-Mankato. I have volunteered with this organization for the past year. It has impacted my experience as a community member of Mankato and has exposed me to the different cultures found within this area. As a Ready to Learn Volunteer, I've been able to work with refugee and immigrant families in the community. Although a large part of my role as a volunteer is to teach the children and help prepare them for Kindergarten, another part is helping the families navigate life in America. The article by Boyle and Ali provided insight to what these families are going through and allowed me to understand the Somali culture and the transition to American culture better. The information presented in this article will be carried with me as I continue to volunteer with the YWCA-Mankato and families in the community.
Programs offered by the YWCA include:
- The Walking in Two Worlds program is for refugee and immigrant women which allows women to connect with other women going through a similar experience, introduce women to the community, and allows the women to better understand American culture and language.
- Ready to Learn Program helps children of refugee and immigrant families prepare for Kindergarten and/or Pre-school.
More information on these programs and others by the YWCA-Mankato can be found at: http://www.mankatoywca.org/
The most interesting part of the reading “Culture, Structure, and the Refugee Experience in Somali Immigrant Family Transformation” was the use of excerpts from the actual interviews within the article. It allowed me to get a more personal idea of the topic and see specific examples that backed up the overall arguments of the article. Specifically, I really enjoyed the quote about how the United States’ laws on polygamy impact Somali families and the quote about what “family” means to a Somali man (pp. 68 and 54). This helped me understand some of the differences between the culture in the U.S. and that of Somalia.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I really enjoyed this reading. I found it to be full of useful information and I learned a lot, especially concerning the differences between refugees and voluntary immigrants. One downfall of the article was the use of the words “a number of”, and “some” when describing the research findings. This troubled me because the researchers interviewed 43 individuals so I was confused as to why they did not give specific numbers to the findings (for example, seven individuals said this, fourteen noted that…). The use of “a number of” and “some” made it seem as though the results were not generalizable even for the sample (n=43). I wish the authors had given specific numbers when discussing the results so that I could see how many of the individuals shared the feelings/ideas represented in the paper.